Political Currency

The Budget is over, and John Healey may want you to forget about it already. That’s what Ed Balls and George Osborne debate on this week’s episode, where they interrogate whether this Budget was biding time until an election or a sign that the Burnham government is even more hemmed in than previously thought. Will they go early and risk losing their majority? Or are they going to whittle through w...

Ed and George went live this afternoon to give their Hot Take on John Healey’s Budget. They concluded the new chancellor was comfortable in his style, but the substance was not there. George declares it an inconsequential Budget, and wonders if Healey’s plan is to do nothing. Ed speculates if this looks like a pre-election Budget. We love hearing from you, so please don’t forget to send all your E...

After the great response to Ed Balls’ scepticism on Burnham trying to rejoin the EU, former Labour MP Gloria De Piero got in touch. She asks Ed and George Osborne just how they would make the case for rejoining, to their former constituents. With Gloria’s seat now held by Lee Anderson, it’s clear that the case in some leave voting areas will be a hard one to make… Then, Times writer and former Spe...

The Budget is less than a week away, and the pressure is on for Andy Burnham and John Healey to deliver. Ed Balls and George Osborne debate whether the right moves are being taken for the new chancellor’s first budget, or if the bold rhetoric from the PM will not be matched by what is set to be a small Budget. George is in Paris this week, days after the media was dominated by scenes of rioting ac...

Author Philip Delves Broughton asks Ed Balls and George Osborne whether Britain could survive an energy shock like the 1973–74 oil crisis, which ended with a three-day week and the fall of the Heath government. George warns of voters blaming the government while Ed argues that the real danger, like in the ‘70s, is the energy shock landing alongside other collapsing post-war assumptions. They then...

International politics can disrupt the best laid plans of any government, and this week was no different. Ed Balls and George Osborne delve into a week that has been dominated by the war in Ukraine, and how Andy Burnham has chosen to navigate it. Donald Trump has made a deal with Russia on diesel, which Zelenskyy said was a betrayal. Burnham has to walk a careful line to side with Ukraine, but not...

Money saving expert Martin Lewis sends in a question for Ed Balls and George Osborne this week, all about the tiny fixes. He tasks the pair with contributing to his new Small Ideas Initiative, proposing their own solutions to the most annoying problems in Britain. Ed goes for football tickets, while George hits on driving tests. They then turn to a former FT colleague of Ed’s, who asks whether the...

Party conference season is over, and it went out with a bang. The Greens have been engulfed by controversy over Zionism, and the Tories have been repositioning as the leading party on the right. Ed Balls and George Osborne delve into what the troubles for the Greens means for Labour, who now couldn’t do a deal in the event of a hung parliament. George argues the Greens are now diminished post-Star...

A questioner from Instagram takes Ed Balls and George Osborne back 20 years in this week’s EMQs, reminiscing on fringe events at party conferences that drew no audience. They reflect on how to handle hosting a sparsely attended event, and the awkwardness George got into when asked a question about his childhood. Natalie Livingstone, author of the new book The Nuremberg Women, then asks how we can...

The dust has settled on Andy Burnham’s conference speech, and the verdict is positive. However, there are lingering questions. Ed Balls and George Osborne, fresh off their Hot Take, set out to answer the most pressing ones. Is the PM moving too early on the triple lock? Has the National Care Service been thought through? Should he be taking inspiration from George on Brexit? Does all of this play...

Andy Burnham’s first Labour conference speech was pitched as a break from your standard conference speech, but did it deliver? Ed Balls and George Osborne went live earlier this afternoon to give their verdict on the speech. How will reform of the triple lock work? Has he sewn up a coalition with the Lib Dems? Is his social care plan too ambitious? All of this and more is answered on this Hot Take...

In a star studded edition of EMQs, Sky News political editor, and rival podcaster, Beth Rigby asks Ed Balls and George Osborne for their biggest party conference cock-ups over the years. George takes us behind the scenes and back to 2007 to a moment that could have ended his and David Cameron’s careers, while Ed recounts the moment that changed British political history. Labour’s party Chair, Brid...

Andy Burnham has finally met Donald Trump, and George Osborne concludes it went as well as it possibly could. He and Ed Balls delve into the two leaders’ meeting in New York this week, and just how Britain navigates the rising tensions around AI in the wake of Australia’s health data breach. George also proposes Trump’s meeting with President Xi could be the start of a global consensus forming on...

How do you unite leaders to come together and work for a common goal? Tom Fletcher, who works for the UN on Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, asks this very question to Ed Balls and George Osborne on this week’s EMQs. As part of the Be Hope podcast takeover, Tom asks the pair how to make a global philanthropic message land in a divided, economically challenged world.  Off the back of...

The budget crunch is on for Andy Burnham’s new government, with Ed Balls and George Osborne warning that the economic outlook has got much worse from when the new PM entered No. 10. The Fed raising interest rates, and the Bank of England likely to follow this autumn, create a stark picture for Burnham and John Healey. George reports a lack of confidence internationally, and wonders if the honeymoo...

Veteran journalist John Sweeney starts this week’s EMQs asking Ed Balls and George Osborne why Farage falls out with all his mates. From Rupert Lowe right back to his Ukip days, the Clacton MP has a long list of former friends turned bitter enemies. Is this part of the grit needed to be a successful politician? Or are Farage’s interpersonal challenges stopping him from reaching No. 10? Labour MP J...

Foreign affairs took centre stage in British politics this week, with Andy Burnham finally showing where he stands. Ed Balls and George Osborne examine the shake-up in rhetoric to Israel/Gaza, but suggest the policy was already planned by the Starmer government. George wonders whether Ed Miliband’s tone was too populist, and whether this was all a play for uniting the left vote. Elsewhere, they ex...

Off the back of our preview of the Bayeux Tapestry, The Rest is History’s own Tom Holland asks Ed Balls and George Osborne about another significant English date: 926. The show is broadcast from inside the British Museum and Tom asks whether we should celebrate this date, commonly thought to be the beginning of England as we know it, and if so how? Two listeners also ask about education;  one...

In this week’s episode, George Osborne and Ed Balls broadcast from the magnificent Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum - the only podcast allowed in the space.   Joined by curator Michael Lewis, they discuss the dramatic diplomacy that saw the delicate masterpiece travel from France to Britain, the real story this 70 metre long tapestry tells and the parallels with politics today...

In this policy focused edition of EMQs, Ed Balls and George Osborne are thinking about the big ideas to help solve Britain’s big issues. They first consider whether steps should be taken to offer tax incentives for having children, as countries like Hungary have done. Ed and George explain why this is an ineffective measure, but an important debate governments must get on top of sooner rather than...

In our final special summer interview, George Osborne sits down with Amol Rajan as he leaves the Today Programme for a new venture. Amol gives George the scoop on his latest endeavour on YouTube and how he sees the media landscape shifting from his old stomping grounds of newspapers, radio, and television. They reflect over his career, touching on rumours of feuds among the Today Programme hosts,...

For our third summer EMQs we’re returning to our What Ifs. Ed Balls and George Osborne first consider how Britain would change had they never entered politics? Would the Bank of England become independent? Would there be a Manchester mayoralty? Or, would it have had no impact? What if George got the US Ambassador gig over Peter Mandelson? The pair consider how George would approach the job differe...

The third of our exclusive summer interviews sees Ed Balls sit down with the former Chief of Staff for No. 10 Sue Gray. In her first major interview since her dramatic split from Keir Starmer’s team, she details the lead up to entering Downing Street and just where things went wrong.  Gray explains how she tried to prepare Starmer’s team for government in 2023, where things went wrong at the...

This week’s themed EMQs is all about America. Ed Balls and George Osborne reflect on their memories of the US from the Founding Fathers right through to Trump. They first consider whether the MAGA worldview is baked into American politics, particularly on an international level, and will affect things like NATO for decades to come. Amol Rajan, from the Today Programme, then poses an idea for Andy...

Our second summer interview sees George Osborne sit down with the new Health Secretary and one of Labour’s most experienced ministers, Yvette Cooper. She was the first minister to take maternity leave and is of course George’s podcasting partner’s other half. They talk about her nearly 30 years as an MP, how politics has changed and what it was like being in cabinet with her husband Ed Balls.&nbsp...